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Investing in Mothers? The Long-Run Impact of a Universal Child Care

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Why This Matters

This is an NBER working paper examining the long-run effects of a universal child care program (drawing on Canadian data accessed through the Canadian Research Data Centre Network), with a focus on outcomes for mothers. The text available here is limited to acknowledgments and a detailed AEA-style conflict-of-interest disclosure rather than results, so the substance of the findings isn't presented. Still, research on whether subsidized child care durably improves maternal employment and earnings bears directly on labor supply debates that matter to employers, including tech firms competing for talent.

Key Takeaways

We thank Leo Ma for excellent research assistance and seminar participants at Carleton, Universidad de Chile, HEC Montreal, University of Illinois, Michigan, MIT, NBER Summer Institute, Northwestern, Queen’s, SOLE meetings, the UBC Stone Breakfast, and the University of Victoria for helpful comments. Timea Molnar provided help with the occupation coding. Baker gratefully acknowledges the research support of a Canada Research Chair at the University of Toronto. Much of the analysis for this paper was conducted at the British Columbia Interuniversity Research Data Centre (SFU and UBC branches), which is part of the Canadian Research Data Centre Network (CRDCN). The services and activities provided by the CRDCN are made possible by the financial or in-kind support of the SSHRC, the CIHR, the CFI, Statistics Canada and participating universities whose support is gratefully acknowledged. The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily represent the CRDCN’s, nor that of its partners, nor that of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

This document attempts to disclose completely my potential conflicts of interest, using the guidelines of the American Economic Association.

Sources of support:

“Each author of a submitted article should identify each interested party from whom he or she has received significant financial support, summing to at least $10,000 in the past three years…”

The following corresponds to the calendar years 2023-2026. Below is a complete listing of sources of support that exceed $10,000. For several of these, a grant flowed through a research organization. I have tried to list both the research organization and ultimate source of the funds.

1. University of British Columbia: salary. (2023 2024 2025 2026)

2. Canadian Institutes of Health Research: Insight Development Grant. (2023 2024 2025 2026)

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